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<\/p>\nJanus Motorcycles issued this press release recently.\u00a0 “The Flying Z” is a good-looking motorcycle with an interesting story.<\/p>\n
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
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\nJuly 6th, 2024
\nGoshen, Indiana<\/p>\n
This spring, 66 year-old Mark Zweig\u2014a lifelong motorcyclist, Janus Motorcycles partner, and part-time CFO for the firm, commissioned a new one-off bike for himself\u2014a custom-built Janus Halcyon 250 dubbed \u201cThe Flying Z.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zweig has been a restorer, customizer, and collector of a wide range of motorcycles from the 60s and 70s for many of his years, sometimes having as many as twenty bikes at a time. And while he has always had a soft spot for smaller, lighter weight bikes, an accident in 2016 where he totalled his brand new Triumph Thruxton 1200, combined with a divorce and resulting downsizing, got him to eventually sell all of his larger bikes and narrow down his rides to a small group of small-displacement bikes including a new Janus Halcyon 250 in the year 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t ride as much as I used to, and certainly don\u2019t need to go that far or that fast. Our founder, Richard Worsham, has dubbed that kind of riding as \u2018rambling.\u2019 Most of my riding is to and from campus (Zweig is the \u2018Entrepreneur in-Residence\u2019 at The Sam M Walton College of Business at The University of Arkansas), or on short trips in and around town. The Janus to me represents everything I want in a motorcycle. It\u2019s incredibly beautiful, simple, reliable, ultra lightweight, and fun to ride. That\u2019s why when I decided to have a new bike built for myself\u2014where we could test out some new design ideas\u2014I opted for another Halcyon 250 instead of one of our larger displacement bikes. It\u2019s such a wonderful basic design.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In fact, this bike is the second of Zweig\u2019s \u201cFlying Z\u2019s.\u201d The first Flying Z was a custom car\u2014a boattailed speedster he built together with his friend and master fabricator, Mike McPherson\u2014featuring a unique handbuilt chassis, hand-formed steel body, rumble seat, sand cast 18\u201d wheels with knockoffs, and a straight-8 Buick engine with triple carbs. \u201cThat thing looked like it came from the same era as our Halcyon,\u201d Zweig said.<\/p>\n
Janus Motorcycles has made its marque and established a cult like following in the motorcycle world by building unique bikes to customer order, one at a time. Their bikes come in a huge range of colors and styles, with all kinds of options for hand pinstriping, leather seats and bags, and much, much more. But Zweig\u2019s Halcyon Flying Z takes things a step farther and has some unique features not found on any other factory-direct Halcyon 250s.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur basic Halcyon 250 looks like a bike that could have come out of the 1920s,\u201d Zweig said. \u201cSo I wanted to see what we could do by creating a bike that looked like the natural evolution of that one and that would have been built in the 1930s or 40s,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the coolest aspects of The Flying Z is its set of uniquely flared and deeply skirted fenders making it more aerodynamic. I have been wanting to see what one of our bikes would look like with some fenders like these for the last couple years, and our master fender builder Brent Lehman, along with the design guidance from our founder and design lead, Richard Worsham, made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bike also has a one-off color scheme, with the frame and most other parts color-matched to the RAL 5024 powder-coated \u201cCavalry Blue\u201d body work. The large \u201cJanus\u201d script on the tank sides was laid out by the design team and painted by lead pinstriper, Kelly Borden, as well as the cream-colored \u201cFlying Z\u201d script and logo on the bike\u2019s black airbox. It has hand-painted dual silver pinstripes on the tank and fenders, along with silver pinstriped black wheel rims.<\/p>\n
The bike also features a sandcast Flying Z fender ornament, based on the original Flying Z hood ornament, created by Zweig\u2019s friend\u2014famed Arkansas sculptor, Eugene Sargent. \u201cSargent made the fender ornament so it bridges the front fender brace and didn\u2019t require any special mounting hardware,\u201d Zweig said. The bike also features other bespoke polished components.<\/p>\n
Topping off the build is a custom engraved fuel cap for its hand formed aluminum tank, replete with a \u201cFlying Z\u201d logo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot wait to see the public reaction to the new Janus Flying Z,\u201d Zweig said. \u201cMy old Janus draws a crowd every time I park it, and I expect this one will be even more attention-grabbing,\u201d he added with a smile.<\/p>\n
For more info, contact Grant Longenbaugh – grant@janusmotorcycles.com<\/p>\n
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